for inspiration. Among Sviridov's most popular orchestral pieces are the "Romance," "Waltz," and "Winter Road" from his suite The Blizzard, musical illustrations after Pushkin (1975), that were extracted from his score for the eponymous 1964 film based on the short story from Pushkin's The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin. A short segment from his score for the 1965 film Time, Forward! (Время, вперёд!) was selected as the opening theme for the main evening TV news program Vremya (Время, 'time') and became a staple of Soviet life for several generations. Poetry always occupied an important place in Sviridov's music. He composed songs and romances to the lyrics of Mikhail Lermontov (1938, 1957), Alexander Blok (1941), William Shakespeare (1944–1960), Robert Burns (in Russian translation, 1955). Despite the popularity of Sviridov's instrumental works, both the composer himself and the music critics regarded vocal and choral music to be his main strengths. Oratorio Pathétique (1959) after Vladimir Mayakovsky has been called a masterful musical rendering of one of the most popular Russian revolution poets. Sviridov's prolific vocal chamber and vocal symphonic output includes the oratorio To the memory of Sergei Yesenin (1956), Little Cantata Wooden Russia (1964) after Yesenin, Cantata Songs of Kursk (1964), Spring Cantata (1972) after Nikolay Nekrasov, songs, romances, and cantatas after Fyodor Tyutchev, Sergei Yesenin, Alexander Blok, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Prokofyev, Robert Rozhdestvensky. He also wrote one opera, Twinkling Lights (1951). While Sviridov's music remains little known in the West, his works received high praise in his homeland for their melodies, national flavor, and expression of Russia and the Russian soul. His piece Winter Road was allegedly plagiarized by Tappi Iwase and used as the theme for the popular video game series Metal Gear Solid. Honors and awards In 1946 Sviridov was awarded the Stalin Prize for his Piano Trio, heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky. The Lenin Prize of 1960 was bestowed on the composer for his Oratorio Pathétique. Georgy Sviridov was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1968 and 1980 and honored with the title People's Artist of the USSR. He became a Hero of Socialist Labour (1975) and was twice awarded the Order of Lenin. Asteroid 4075 Sviridov, discovered by the Russian astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina in 1982, was named in honor of Georgy Sviridov. Death Sviridov died of a heart attack in Moscow, where he had lived since 1956, on 6 January 1998. Filmography Virgin Soil Upturned